Early Capitalist Society (648-655) and Europeans in the Pacific (686-691)

Early Capitalist Society

Population Growth and Urbanization

• Healthier diets due to Americas crops increased population

• Potatoes was a source of carbohydrates for peasants who couldn't afford bread
• Maize came from the Americas to feed live stock
• New diets enables them to fight off diseases
• Bubonic plague made occassional appearences but mostly died out by mid 17th century
• Birth rates didn't rise much but death lessened causing increase in population
• 1500 population of Europe and Russia was 81 million
• During 1620-1650 (Thirty Years' War) population declined
• In 1700 it rose to 120 million though
• Cities that were government sites and commercial had increasing population

Early Capitalism

• The economic growth due to increasing population and urbanization led to capitalism

• Capitalism is an economic system when private companies make their goods and surfaces available on free market
  The market where businessmen compete with each other and determines goods value is the center of a capitalist system
• Banks and investors supported private commercial owners since the postclassical era
• Banks were major commercial sites in Europe holding funds and loaning out to merchants
• Banks published magazines reporting prices and demand of products
• Joint-stock companies like English East India Company and Dutch VOC took commerce to a new level
• Capitalism was supported by government
• Government authorized joint-stock companies to explore, conquer, and colonize distant lands

Protoindustrialization

• Capitalist entrepreneurs bypassed guilds by moving production to the countryside (17th and 18th century)
• This organized a "putting-out system" when they delivered unfinished materials to rural households
• Entrepreneurs then paid the workers picking up the finished product and sold them
• This saved entrepreneurs money with labor and getting them large profits
• The putting-out system was prominent in the European society until industrial factories rose in the 19th century

GG

Social Change in Early Modern Europe

• Putting-out system introduced sums of money into countryside
• Increased wealth brought meterial benefits
• Peasants got more cabinets, furnishings, and tableware
• Individuals aquired incomes that enabled them to economic and financial interests

Serfdom in Russia

• Romanov tsars restricted freedoms of Russian peasants in concern of retaining the allegiance of powerful nobles
• Serfdom was a labor system that required peasants to provide services for landowners
• Serfdom came to an end after 15th century in Europe but survived in Russia until 19th century
• Government of Russia introduced law code that made a tight state control over Russianlabor force in 1649
• Landlords sold serfs like they were private property

Profits and Ethics

• Midieval theologians considered profit making as morally dangerous
• Churches attempted to forbid collection of interset on loans
• Adam Smith (1723-1790) was most important apostle of capitalism
• He said society would prosper when individuals pursued their own economic interests
• Capitalist economic practices generated deep social strains, bandits, muggers, and which-hunting

The Nuclear Family

• Strengthened by capitalism
• Offered opportunities for independent families to increase wealth by cultivating agricultural crops
• Families became more independent economically, socially, and emotionally
• Love between men and women became important and interaction between parents and children became important family life aspect

C.O.
Science and Enlightenment

• Astronomers and physicists rejected the classic Greek and Roman ideas
• New ideas were based off of observations and mathematical reasoning
• 17th and 18th century, Scientific studies were prominent
• Results of the scientific revolution were so powerful that they overhauled moral, social, and political ideas and replaced them with scientific methods
• This challenged the church

The Reconception of the Universe
The Ptolemaic Universe

• Until the 17th Century, their understanding of the universe was based on Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, who was a greek philosopher
• Mid-2nd Century, Ptolemy composed the Almagest, which synthesized theories about the universe
• Ptolemy thought the world was motionless surrounded by nine hallow spheres that revolved around the earth
• The first seven spheres were heavenly bodies. The sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The 8th sphere was spheres and 9th was an empty
• Beyond the spheres, Christians believed the heaven were

Planetary Movements

• Cosmology didn't match with the erratic movements of planets
• From earth, planets followed regular courses in the sky. The motions would be difficult to explain if they revolved around the earth
• He wanted to explain the planets orbits were perfect circle

The Copernican Universe

• 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres that disproved the Ptolemaic theory
• Copernicus said that the sun was the center and the planets revolved around it.
• People didn't want to accept the theory because it threatened religious beliefs.
• Theory implied earth was just another planet and that humans weren't the center of universe and my not be the only people in the universe

The Scientific Revolution

• Copernicus inspired other astronomers to examine the universe

Galileo Galilei

• Johannes Kepler proved that planet's orbits were elliptical not circular.
• Galileo showed that heavens weren't an unblemished realm
• Disproved theory that everything in the universe was smooth and saw craters on the sun and moon
• Found that Jupiter had four moons and that the universe was much larger than thought

Isaac Newton

• 1642-1727, English Mathematician
• Until 20th Century, Newton's theories were unquestioned and was the framework of physical science.
• He inspired the discoveries of astronomers and physicists.
• Brought about the method of finding scientific discoveries through the use of mathematics

A.S.

EUROPEANS IN THE PACIFIC

AUSTRALIA

Dutch Exploration

• Europeans had speculated about an Australian continent since the second century C.E.
• Portuguese mariners had most likely charted parts of Australia by the 1520s
• Dutch sailors made the first recordings of Australia in 1606
• Dutch mariner Jan Carstenzs reported that Australia was completely barren in 1623
• Dutch continued to scout various areas of Australia

British Exploration

• The east coast was last to be explored in 1770 by James Cook
• Mariners had little contact with aboriginal peoples
• The first colony was established at Sydney in 1788
• They were British convicts who herded sheep
• The first free settlers did not come until the 1830s

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Spanish Voyages

• Magellan enountered the only populated islands at the Marianas in 1521
• Spanish mariners found little reason to explore the Pacific Islands
• Occasional visits by galleons occurred at the islands, including Hawaii

Spanish interest in Guam

• Their only main interest was Guam, where galleons stopped for provisions
• Had peaceful trade with the Chamorro people
• Spaniards decided to consolidate Guam and the Marianas in the 1670s and 1680s
• Smallpox decimated Chamorro people
• Spanish had conquered the islands and established garrisons by 1700

Visitors and Trade

• Trade with the local groups was originally infrequent
• After 1767, trade picked up in the Pacific Islands, particularly Tahiti
• Most trade was peaceful

Hawaii

• James Cook landed at Hawaii in 1778
• Cook was able to communicate with Hawaiians due to familiarity with Polynesian languages
• Traded with the Hawaiians: iron wares for pigs and provisions, also diseases
• Revisited in 1779, not a warm welcome, was killed in a skirmish

J. BAUER